The High Court (HC) yesterday directed the government not to harass or arrest Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina at home or abroad till October 20 in the Niko and barge-mounted power plant graft cases.

Alongside testing infant milk formula for tracing of melamine, the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) has collected samples of Cadbury chocolate whether they are tainted with melamine.

Awami League (AL) has no doubt about the parliamentary election scheduled for December 18, since the caretaker government categorically promised to the people that it will be held on the announced date, AL Acting General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam said yesterday.

Chief Adviser (CA) Fakhruddin Ahmed did not have any telephone conversation or meeting with Awami League President Sheikh Hasina while in New York City late last month, his press secretary yesterday said.

The Taliban are unusually angry about the latest suspected U.S. missile strike in Pakistan, a sign a top militant may have died in the attack, officials and residents said Sunday amid reports the death toll rose by two to 24.

China's food safety watchdog yesterday said no trace of the industrial chemical melamine was found in new tests of milk powder sold domestically, as officials sought to restore public trust in milk supplies.

Editorial

THE Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) was either unaware of the market mechanisms or credits the public with very little intelligence when it asserted that the increased hike in the price of power would be applicable to only the bulk buyers and not to the retail rate for the consumers.

ACCIDENTS on roads and waterways take a huge toll of human lives in the country during Eid holidays every year. This time it was no different. Records show 36 people died and about 200 were injured in road and launch accidents in the last five days across the country. We express our condolences for the deceased and sympathy for their bereaved families and the injured.

DETAILED accounts of rural non-land capital at household level are rare in contemporary researches. That leaves us with little scope to analyse the livelihoods of the rural people and understand the dynamics of rural economy. In a Brac-backed survey of households in repeated samples, we came up with some tentative estimates of such capital endowments and changes thereof.

DR. Manmohan Singh said, on his return from France, that the incidents in Orissa had shamed India before the world. That is important, but far less important than the fact that the violence in Orissa has shamed Indians in India. I measure what Indians do, not by the standards of France but by the values of modern India, which strengthened the spirit of our freedom movement against western colonialism and were enshrined in that noble document called the Constitution of India. The Bajrang Dal has shamed India before Indians.

AMERICA'S financial crisis has allowed all sorts of people -- from British trade unionists to Asian central bankers to France's mercurial president -- to declare that we're seeing the end of laissez-faire capitalism and free markets. We're not. Let's step back, take a deep breath, and put this in historical context. What is happening now is a deep, wrenching financial crisis unlike any we've seen since the 1930s. It's contributing to a broad slowdown of the American economy. The pain is spreading across the world. It's ugly. But it's not unprecedented. The history of capitalism is filled with credit crises, panics, financial meltdowns, and recessions. It doesn't mean the end of capitalism. But it might well mean the end of a certain kind of global dominance for the United States.

Sports

After experiments to inject too much fresh blood into the national team failed during the AFC Challenge Cup and the SAFF Football Championship earlier this year, new coach Shafiqul Islam Manik will return to experience when he takes Bangladesh into his first assignment.

The air of invincibility that gave nightmares to bowlers is all but gone but Sachin Tendulkar's greatness can never be doubted and the least that the batting maestro deserves is a retirement day of his choice.

Former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram has termed the increasingly shrill debate on the future of Indian cricket's 'fab four' meaningless, saying the quartet still has two years of international cricket left.

He claims to have learnt from his mistakes and is tired of being embroiled in controversies but Harbhajan Singh refuses to change and says he would be at his feisty best when India take on Australia in the upcoming Test series because he plays to win and not to make friends.

Investors are likely to get relief from the pressure of paying whole amount of subscription price for an IPO (initial public offering), as a Securities and Exchange Commission committee has recommended for depositing 25 percent of the subscription value in a first instalment.

Two things are going to refresh Bangladesh's economic outlook soon -- a boom in local brands and a new breed of designs and designers -- as the country has already grown into one of the busiest hubs for readymade garment (RMG) outsourcing. This is what experts say.

His responsibility to make family ends meet began as he turned a teen. Studying in Class 8 in Satkhira, he taught students of Class 5, to earn the pittance that helped to keep his family afloat, his mother, and his younger siblings, a brother and sister. His father passed away in 1971. Soft spoken and suave, S Abul Hashem took me by surprise. Unaware of his epic struggle in life, I met up with him to talk about software and real estate, two diverse companies which he heads as managing director.

British consulting firm Axon Group PLC has agreed to accept a 785 million dollar bid by India's Information Technology major HCL Technologies Ltd, rejecting an earlier offer made by another Indian IT giant Infosys.

A parliamentary delegation from the home affairs committee of the United Kingdom (UK) is visiting Bangladesh from today to examine the impact of the British government's worldwide plans for a new points-based migration system and the introduction of new sponsorship arrangements.

Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday demanded of the government to hold a referendum next month to seek public opinion on three crucial issues including nullifying or amending the Article 70 of the constitution to check parliamentary autocracy.

Different political, socio-cultural organisations and professional bodies yesterday expressed their profound shock at the death of Prof Chowdhury Shamsul Huda Harun, former teacher of Dhaka University.

One person was killed and at least 40 people, including some women, were injured in an attack by a group yesterday after a cow ate some plants in a paddy field at Sundha village in sadar upazila yesterday.

The wife of a senior assistant secretary was admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) yesterday with serious head injuries after her in-laws allegedly attacked her at their Rampura residence in the city.

Workers' Party of Bangladesh President Rashed Khan Menon and General Secretary Bimal Biswas expressed their profound shock at the death of Mosharraf Hossain Nannu, a language movement veteran and leader of Sramik Krishak Samajbadi Party.

Sale of Tangail saree saw a boost on the occasion of Durga Puja, the biggest festival of the Hindus, as the traditional product with its varied qualities and prices is attracting increasing number of buyers from home and abroad.

Letters

“Magic Teen Chakar Taroka” is the title of a musical competition programme being shown on ATN Bangla. This musical contest is being participated by the working people who are involved in the profession of pulling/driving three-wheelers, i.e.rickshaw-pullers, CNG auto-rickshaw drivers. Noted cultural personality Asaduzzaman Noor is very creditably anchoring the programme. The contestants selected by the judges of the programme are, no doubt, fantastic and outstanding singers. They deserve appreciation for upholding the art of singing, despite hardships and many other limitations.

Mixing of impure substances with foods was a much-talked-about topic in the recent past. During the month of Ramadan, it again gained momentum with the latest reports focusing on the new techniques of food adulteration. A few months ago the situation changed radically as the anti-adulteration drive was going on in full swing. Interestingly enough, the condition is now as it was in the past.

To meet the demand for more food, farmers have to adopt new technologies, hybrid plants, insecticides to increase soil fertility & productivity etc. Most of the farmers in our country are not educated. They find the use of chemical fertilizers the only means of increasing plant productivity without any knowledge of the adverse effects of synthetic chemical fertilizers on the ecosystem. Moreover, the use of chemical fertilizers costs a lot & due to non-availability of chemical fertilizers farmers have to suffer a lot. When biological agents are used to increases soil quality to augment plant productivity, the biological agents are then called biofertilizer. Various types of biofertilizers are now used universally in place of chemical fertilizers without harming the natural ecological balance. It costs less compared to chemical fertilizers.

The death of Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Mahmoud Darwish will be remembered all around the world for years to come because their works always remind us of the pains and sufferings the people have been through. The works of the Russian writer, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish will keep on playing significant roles in shaping our future.

While thanking Mr Sohel Ahmed for his concern about my agony (DS,21 Sept) and for his forthright comments in his last letter where he had confirmed that Dhaka had only 7% road area instead of normal 25-30%, I am quite disappointed at some of the points he has made. Blaming the recent past generations for just producing children and not paying attention to the problems of the city is, in my opinion, hitting below the belt.

Bangladesh is not running through the path of democracy right now, though the present caretaker government is sincerely trying to turn this undemocratic course of the country into the course of democracy.

In a report of UN Children's Fund (Unicef), it came out that maternal mortality fell by 22 percent in South Asia (from 650 to 500 deaths per 1,00,000 live births). The report says that antenatal care and childbirth attendance rates in the region have also improved. It said that India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan were still among the 10 South Asian countries that accounted for almost two thirds of maternal deaths globally. Here only 41 percent of all births are delivered by a health professional. In India an estimated 14.4 million births a year are not attended by health professionals. Antenatal care coverage in South Asia is the lowest in the world, but improvements are also proceeding more rapidly than any other region.

A plaintiff, defendant or a witness irrespective of all urgencies of life, physical well-being, weather and traffic jams makes his/her way to the courts on the dates fixed for hearing. Particularly the defendant remains tense and wary of the reporting and does his/her best to appear on the due date and time, lest warrant of arrest is issued against him/her. But his/her physical presence is not enough. It has to be recorded by a court clerk and without paying bribe to him and the lawyer the attendance will not be in order. The amount ranges between Tk 200/ to Tk 500/.

I wish to respond to the letter from Dr. Kazi Mizanur Rahman published on 26 September 2008 in The Daily Star regarding Thai visa. I would like to bring to your attention that the Royal Thai Embassy in Dhaka has outsourced VFS for non-judgemental operation of the Thai visa application process since 2004 and there is no appointment system prevailing till date. Any applicant can walk in and submit the application to the VFS Thailand Visa Application Centre without prior appointment over telephone or otherwise.

Bangladesh cricket was catapulted into world stage when they were just teething in 1998 and was producing competitive cricketers like Aminul, Akram, Nannu, Naimur Rahman Durjoy, Rafique, Pilot, Bashar etc. Lots of people opposed our entry into Test cricket. But at that time it was a decision that had to be taken. After all, you may not get a man like Dalmiya from Kolkata as ICC chief in the next 50 years. Another good thing happened in the period 2002-2005. Call him anything you like, but give the devil its due. Arafat Rahman Koko, the former PM's son, became the chairman of Development Committee of Cricket. He pumped in corporate funds to develop an under-19 squad that included Mohammed Ashraful, Aftab Ahmed, Shahriyar Nafees, Mashrafe Mortaza, Shakib Al Hasan, Shahdat Hossain Rajib, Syed Rasel and Mehrab Hossain jr. Now they are all in the national side, aren't they? The guys who took the pains in creating all these greenhorns into internationals was an Aussie coach, Richard McInnes. He had become the supplier of great talents like Tamim, Roquibul,Abdur Razzak, Nazimuddin and others to be given the finishing by a seasoned Whatmore and see what happened in the ICC Cup in the West Indies. The coach is still grooming great guns like Nayeem Islam, Suhrawardy Shuvo, Arafat Sunny, Zunaed Siddique, Ziaur Rahman, Shamsur Rahman Shuvo, Nasir Hossain, Mahmudul Hasan and so on. You will soon see them in the national ODI and Test squads.

The role of our ambassadors and High Commissioners in the major capitals of the world was always and still is very important. The knowledge gathered through the scientific and technical books, manuals and journals and also the audio-visual equipments have practical limitations.

On 20 April 2008, an advertisement was given in the daily Prothom Alo by the ministry of education, inviting applications from interested candidates for appointment as vice-chancellors of seven public universities in Bangladesh. Similar advertisement was also given in DS of 7t August 2008 for appointment of vice-chancellors for five public universities. This is the first time in the history of higher education (at university level) in Bangladesh that advertisement was given in newspaper for appointment of vice-chancellors.

The speakers from TIB and SNC at a recent conference, that promoted the idea of a unified education system, claimed that adopting a unified system of education and denying the present freedom to have Bengali-medium, English-medium and Madrassah education would produce a society free from 'discrimination, corruption and fanaticism' - but I still don't buy it!

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has admitted that India is not a threat to his country and described the militants operating in Jammu and Kashmir as terrorists, a statement made perhaps for the first time by a top Pakistani leader.

Authorities imposed an indefinite curfew in Indian Kashmir early Sunday ahead of a pro-independence rally called by separatists as thousands of government forces patrolled the Himalayan region's main city.

Britain's top military commander in Afghanistan said in an interview yesterday the public should not expect "decisive military victory" there, only the reduction of the insurgency to manageable levels.

Iran will continue with uranium enrichment, the focus of international fears about its nuclear programme, even if the country is promised supplies of nuclear reactor fuel, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Sunday.

European Union plans to tackle climate change reach a crucial phase on Tuesday with votes in the EU parliament, amid fears among green groups that pressure from industry is watering the proposals down.

Arts & Entertainment

Last year's "Lux Superstar", Bidya Sinha Saha Mim, seemed over the moon regarding the release of her debut film Amar Achhey Jal. Written and directed by Humayun Ahmed, it was a golden opportunity for Mim -- working alongside established actors Zahid Hassan, Ferdaus and Shaon. In an interview with The Daily Star, the young actress went over her debut in a feature film and offered some tips for this year's "Lux Superstar" competitors. Excerpts from the conversation:

A three daylong International “Children's Film Festival” began in Bogra on September 4. Ten films from seven countries including Bangladesh were screened at the festival held at the Muktijoddha Aminul Karim Dulal Auditorium, Bogra Zila School premises.

OP-ED

THE world economy is facing very serious problems because of plunging house prices, falling credit availability, and decreasing real incomes in many countries. The crisis began when Fannie Mae (The Federal National Mortgage Association) and Freddie Mac (The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation), the two largest mortgage lenders, went bankrupt.

WARNING: this article is highly controversial. It may result in people rioting in the streets. No, it's nothing to do with cartoons or religion. I have an even more contentious issue to raise: Mothers are not always right.

Star City

Residents in a West Badda neighbourhood took it for a usual feature when their ceiling fans, televisions and computers lay lifeless due to frequent power failures on September 28, Monday -- one or two hours at a time, three to four times throughout the day.